CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The University of Illinois today announced that Siebel Systems, the world's leading provider of eBusiness applications software, has donated $2.6 million to the UI to establish the Siebel Scholars Program in computer science.
The Siebel Scholars Program is being initiated at 11 of the world's leading business and computer science schools.
Each Siebel Scholar at the UI will receive a $25,000 award to defray tuition costs and expenses for the second year of his or her graduate study in computer science.
Five Scholars will be selected each year based on academic merit and leadership excellence demonstrated in the first year of the students' advanced degree programs.
"This wonderful gift perfectly exemplifies the commitment of Siebel Systems to excellence," said William Schowalter, the dean of the UI College of Engineering, which encompasses the department of computer science. "There exists a serious nationwide shortage of computer science graduates who will be needed to sustain this new industrial revolution, and the University of Illinois is committed to addressing the problem. The Siebel Scholars Program is a powerful means of motivating the best and brightest young people to enter the field, and to reward those who excel.
"We look forward to naming our first Siebel Scholars and are confident that this program will become the centerpiece of our efforts to identify and cultivate tomorrow's leaders in computer science," Schowalter said.
On Feb. 24, Thomas M. Siebel, the chairman and chief executive officer of Siebel Systems, agreed to donate $32 million to the UI to construct the Siebel Center for Computer Science, a state-of-the-art facility for the department of computer science at the Urbana campus.
"The graduate program at the University of Illinois has made great contributions to industry and society, both here in Silicon Valley and worldwide," Siebel said. "Siebel Systems wishes to support those efforts on a personal level, and the Siebel Scholars Program is our way of giving something back to this great institution."
Deans from the institutions that are part of the Siebel Scholars Program will select the first 55 Siebel Scholars before the end of this academic year. In addition, an alumni association of all Siebel Scholars will convene at a conference to be hosted annually by one of the participating schools.
The other institutions at which the Scholars program is being established are Carnegie Mellon University (School of Computer Science), University of California at Berkeley (School of Engineering), University of Chicago (Graduate School of Business), Harvard University (Harvard Business School), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (School of Engineering and MIT/Sloan School of Management), Northwestern University (J.L. Kellogg School of Management), University of Pennsylvania (The Wharton School) and Stanford University (Graduate School of Business and School of Engineering). Each of the schools will receive $2.6 million from Siebel Systems to establish the Scholars program.
Siebel earned three degrees from the UI: a bachelor's in history (1975), a master's in business administration (1983) and a master's in computer science (1985).
Siebel Systems Inc. provides an integrated family of eBusiness application software enabling multi-channel sales, marketing and customer service systems to be deployed over the Web, call centers, field, reseller channels, retail and dealer networks. Siebel Systems' sales and service facilities are deployed locally in more than 28 countries. More information is available on the Web at www.Siebel.com.